A modern-day opportunity for First Contact

“Six out of ten Australians have had little or no contact with Indigenous people.”

First Contact will challenge perceptions, confront prejudices, and offer redemption to its six participants.

Hosted by Ray Martin the three episode series is an insight into the broader nation’s view on our first Australians. Taking six Aussies from Redfern to Elcho Island, Alice Springs to the Kimberley and the Pilbara the series is an opportunity to really see how people overcome adversity and rise above the challenges that surround them. After 28 days embedded with various Indigenous communities around Australia will the participants change, or retain their previously held views?

The six – Jasmine, Bo-dene, Trent, Alice, Sandy and Marcus – should be applauded for their willingness to be involved in the series. Their opinions before they start are atypical of segments of Australia yet they participate and expose themselves to ideas and experiences well outside their collective and individual comfort zones.

It’s not sugar-coated either. Taking the participants on a night patrol that assists the drunk and vulnerable opens up the true cost of alcohol in Indigenous communities. Domestic violence. Suicide. Prison. Issues that affect all Australians yet do so in a far higher rate per capita within these communities aren’t hidden from view but rather revealed for the problems they are and how some are working to overcome these scourges.

Simulcast across the three nights on SBS one, SBS HD and NITV, as well as a later replay on SBS2 there’s no reason not to watch this incredible documentary. Special editions of Insight and Awaken have been commissioned to accompany this series and air nightly after the first run of each episode. A special live Insight airs Thu 9:30pm after the final episode reuniting the participants for the first time since their journey.

In First Contact the incredible team at Blackfella Films offer a program that should be more than reasonably considered an equal to the Once Upon A Time and multi-award winning Go Back To Where You Came From series. It is, without question, the most powerfully important television you must see in 2014.